The Rangers pushed their chips in and went all upside in this draft, leaning heavily on high school picks that collected over $10 million of the less than $12 million in bonuses Texas handed out. The class is highlighted by a pair of electric prep lefties in Gio Rojas and Brody Bumila, both of which could have been gone in the top fifteen picks had the draft happened a few months earlier. In addition to potential impact bat and another prep star in Connor Comeau, Texas ultimately punted rounds six through ten by spending a total of $17,500 on five seniors and saving about $1.3 million in the process. With a little bit left over going into the back half of the draft, they spread it around on four players who signed above the allotted $150,000 for that part of the draft including two in-region preps in Jordan Hawkins and Landon Brewers. It's a high risk, high reward class with the wealth concentrated at the top on big gambles Rojas, Comeau, and Bumila.
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Note that the number before a player's name indicates their draft position. For example, "2-50" would indicate that a player was taken in the second round with the fiftieth overall pick.
1-16: LHP Gio Rojas, Stoneman Douglas HS [FL]
Slot value: $5.05 million. Signing bonus: $4.6 million ($451,900 below slot value).
My rank: #9. MLB Pipeline: #8. ESPN: #21.
The Rangers started off their class with a really savvy pick, grabbing the clear-cut best high school pitching prospect in the class for nearly half a million dollars below slot value, coming in between the values of the #18 and #19 picks. He brings huge upside with an electric left arm and more to tap into, giving the Rangers a potential ace. The fastball sits in the mid 90's with running action and touches 98 at peak, certainly with more in the tank. He misses a ton of bats with a plus slider that dives across the plate with good sweep, while he has begun incorporating his fading changeup more with a chance to get to above average in time. It's a tremendous frame at 6'4", 195 pounds, and he uses it well with a simple, natural delivery that enables him to hold his velocity effortlessly. Rojas fills up the zone well for a teenage lefty fireballer, all together giving him a really attractive floor to go with his upside. The Rangers will streamline his delivery a little bit more to bring even greater power out of his left arm, tweaking the secondaries to bring them to the next level while letting him develop physically and add yet even more. The South Florida native is a player development dream combining present stuff, size, athleticism, command, and handedness at just 19 years old. The Rangers do well with these types and could get him moving through the system relatively quickly. Rojas reminds me a bit of a left handed Seth Hernandez, although down a half tier from his Pirates counterpart. He had previously been committed to Miami.
2-54: SS Connor Comeau, Anderson HS [TX]
Slot value: $1.81 million. Signing bonus: $2.5 million ($694,700 above slot value).
My rank: #39. MLB Pipeline: #55. ESPN: #66.
Coming back to the Lone Star State, Connor Comeau gets the value of the #40 pick here at #54 to sign away from a Texas A&M commitment. He's another projectable prep, having starred at Anderson High School in Austin where he really caught some steam in his senior year. Comeau makes a ton of contact from the left side, naturally driving the ball on a line and in the air with consistency across numerous events and back home in Austin. Listed at 6'4", 180 pounds, his power is fringier for now but it is laughably easy to dream on him growing into average or even above average power in time. He already has the feel for the barrel and the natural ability to get the ball in the air, so any strength gains (of which there should be plenty) will go straight to his game power output. The projection is accentuated even further by his extreme youth, not turning 18 until a month after the draft and coming in over a full year younger than Gio Rojas. In the field, Comeau has a plus arm that puts plenty of carry on the ball across the diamond, giving him a great shot to stick on the left side of the infield. That may be more likely at third base than shortstop, where his heavier feet limit his range and give him below average speed even before he bulks up. Texas believes they're buying into a potential above average hitter with above average power, a bat that will absolutely play at third base but will even provide significant value in right field if he moves off the dirt. With guys like Corey Seager, Josh Jung, and Wyatt Langford in tow and prospects like Sebastian Walcott and Josh Owens, the Rangers are beginning to build a core of tall, balanced hitters in both the contact and power departments. Comeau fits right in.
3-89: LHP Brody Bumila, Bishop Feehan HS [MA]
Slot value: $900,800. Signing bonus: $2.75 million ($1.85 million above slot value).
My rank: #48. MLB Pipeline: #23. ESPN: #65.
If the Rangers shot for the moon with Gio Rojas, they're getting an even more extreme version in Brody Bumila. A relative unknown earlier in his prep career, he exploded onto the scene early in his senior season when he came out pumping triple digits from the left side, completely swallowing southern Massachusetts high school competition. If that wasn't enough to grab scouts' attention, he did it while standing 6'9" with massive extension. Unfortunately, he sustained that success almost long enough to cement himself in the first round, hearing his name as high as the the Rangers' first pick, but he didn't look right towards the end of the season and wound up hurting his UCL. The rest of his profile is relatively raw, not unexpected from small town New England. His slider is still searching for its identity, coming in like a low 80's slurve at times and more like a low 90's cutter at others, though neither stand out as big league out pitches yet. His changeup is a bit more advanced than you might expect, showing great fade when he gets it right, though his feel comes and goes. Bumila's delivery is relatively raw, as is his in-zone command, though to his credit he did a very nice job this spring of just laying it over the plate and daring hitters to catch up to it (which in fact, they could not). He's an excellent athlete for his size, starring on the basketball court and repeating that raw delivery nicely. Beyond the athleticism, height, handedness, and triple digit velocity, Bumila has earned praise for his coachability and seems primed to explode under pro development. Texas will be very careful rehabbing his UCL injury (he had internal brace surgery a year ago) and combined with his rawness, he likely won't see Globe Life Field for a very long time. The eighteen year old will need to first get healthy, then streamline his delivery and find a better breaking ball. Once he gets there, though, he has every bit of the ceiling of first rounder Gio Rojas if with significantly more risk. Bumila was on his way to the Lone Star State anyways with a Texas commitment, but instead his $2.75 million bonus comes in right around the value of the #36 pick.
4-117: RHP Hudson Calhoun, Mississippi
Slot value: $664,500. Signing bonus: $498,375 ($166,125 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: #235. ESPN: unranked.
Texas began to save money in the fourth round, where they also took their first college player in Hudson Calhoun. He barely saw the mound as a freshman, gradually took on a larger role as a sophomore, then stepped forward as one of the Rebels' more trusted arms as a junior in 2026 before finding himself in the fourth round. Nothing about the stuff pops out quite yet, but the Rangers see a broad skillset they can mold into a big league starter. His fastball sits in the low to mid 90's with cut, touching 98 at times and setting up a full arsenal of secondaries. He has had success with his above average cutter, which he can loosen into a truer slider as well. Calhoun also shows a 12-6 curveball and a fading changeup, the latter of which is his only pitch with arm-side movement. The 6'4" righty still has projection left in the tank, though his command is fringy to this point and the Rangers will try to simplify the delivery just a little bit. While he has been almost exclusively a reliever in college, the Rangers may want to give starting a shot. He'll have to bring the command long and take a step forward with one or two of his secondaries, or if not he could continue to function well in a long relief role and perhaps focus on a narrower arsenal. Overall, he's not as far off from an impact pitching prospect as you might think.
8-237: SS Kolby Branch, Georgia
Slot value: $236,100. Signing bonus: $7,500 ($228,600 below slot value).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
By the middle and end of the draft's first half, the Rangers were in full money saving mode giving sixth and seventh rounders Aidan Brainard and Caden Aoki just $2,500 each to sign. Kolby Branch got slightly more at $7,500, but again, it's a massive savings for Texas. Branch is a DFW boy who grew up in Lucas, just 25 miles northeast of Dallas, where he attended Lovejoy High School but graduated a year late at nearly 19.5 years old in 2022. Beginning his college career at Baylor, he immediately found the starting lineup and hit .325/.430/.509 as a twenty year old freshman. He transferred to Georgia after that lone season and proceeded to blast fifty home runs in three years, including the most memorable of his career on June 17th as he went deep in his final college at bat – and rounded the bases right by his younger brother Kyle. At the time, he may not have known if he would be hanging up the cleats for good, but now he'll continue the dream with his hometown team. Branch isn't huge at 5'11", but his direct right handed swing and compact frame has helped him tap all of his average raw power in games. While he controlled the strike zone extremely well as a freshman back in 2023, he hasn't faired as well in that regard since jumping to the SEC with his strikeout rate jumping from an impressive 14.8% as a freshman to 24.8% over his three years at Georgia. The bat to ball may never be better than fringy, so he'll need to continue to tap that average power with wood in order to stay viable offensively. Fortunately, Branch is a strong defender who can handle any infield position with range, arm strength, and defensive savvy to make managers happy. He will turn 24 just before the start of spring training next year, so he'll want to hit his way up quickly as a potential utility infielder.
11-327: OF Jordan Hawkins, Carl Albert HS [OK]
Slot value: up to $150,000. Signing bonus: $200,000 ($50,000 against bonus pool).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
With a little bit of money left over after their radical saving in rounds six through ten, Texas spent the rest of it on a pair of young for the class, in-region preps. The first was outfielder Jordan Hawkins, a Midwest City, Oklahoma native who starred at Carl Albert High School, alma mater of J.T. Realmuto. Hawkins flew extremely under the radar up in the Oklahoma City suburbs, committing to Barton JC in Kansas during his senior year after receiving little interest from major Division I programs. Listed at 6'3", 185 pounds, he has a frame to dream on even if he is still filling it out. He's a switch hitter and Texas loves the way his swing works from both sides, showing a knack for line drives and the bat speed present to tack on significant power as he fills out his wiry frame. It's below average power at this point that will take a minute to manifest, but Texas has long shown a willingness to be patient with these types of prospects. Hawkins is a plus runner who will use his speed as a weapon on both sides of the ball, again especially after some pro development time. Adding to his upside, he is young for a graduating senior and was still seventeen on draft day, so the Rangers have plenty of time to mold this excellent athlete into a sleeper prospect and future impact player.
15-447: RHP Landon Brewer, Minden HS [LA]
Slot value: up to $150,000. Signing bonus: $197,500 ($47,500 against bonus pool).
My rank: unranked. MLB Pipeline: unranked. ESPN: unranked.
One of the top prep arms in North Louisiana for some time now, Landon Brewer had been committed to stay local and play at Louisiana Tech until the Rangers popped him in the fifteenth round and gave him nearly an extra $50,000 on top of the typical $150,000 bonus at that spot in the draft. He has continued to come along throughout his prep career, now sitting in the low 90's with his fastball while showing a sharp curveball and developing changeup. Texas loves his explosive athleticism and whippy arm on the mound, dreaming on potential velocity gains as he fills out his still-growing 6'3" frame. Brewer repeats his uptempo delivery consistently and has a nice baseline as a strike thrower, giving him sneaky upside as he continues to add velocity and refine the rougher edges of his game. Like Jordan Hawkins, he's relatively young for a high school senior and turned eighteen shortly before the draft, giving him all the more time to put things together as a potential big league starting pitcher. Instead of heading 45 minutes east to Ruston for college, he'll go about three and a half hours west on I-20 to Arlington to join the Rangers.
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